


A Crack in the Armor

by ElinorJane



Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Aftermath, Dad Kanan, Parental Kanan Jarrus, SpaceDad Kanan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-07
Updated: 2021-01-07
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:34:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28611426
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElinorJane/pseuds/ElinorJane
Summary: Sabine’s tough, but dealing face-to-face with two Inquisitors had to have rattled her. This one’s a bit ramble-y and somewhat self-indulgent, because Kanan and Sabine father-daughter fics give me life. Set right after S2 episode “Always Two There Are”.
Relationships: Father-Daughter - Relationship, Kanan Jarrus & Sabine Wren, Parental
Comments: 5
Kudos: 15





	A Crack in the Armor

Sabine sat upright, shivering, and rubbed her face and grabbed her hair in both hands. _Get a grip, Sabine _!  
__

She vaguely heard the whirring and humming of the Ghost’s machinery. It was the middle of the night, and there was no other sound. She could easily imagine she was back on that dark medical station with the Inquisitors… 

She flung aside the blankets, grabbed the nearest sketchbook and pencils, and began scribbling. Doodles, symbols, graffiti designs to spray on whatever Imperial building she might encounter next…anything to distract her thoughts. 

She’d dreamed she was being chased. By whom, she couldn’t see, but she’d run and run, and groped for her blasters and hadn’t found them, and run and run and tried to snag a branch to make a spear. Every stick she’d grabbed had melted away in her touch. And she’d had to run and run. 

It wasn’t far from the truth. She shivered again and frowned as she scribbled harder. 

It could have been far worse today. But Zeb saved them, and she, Ezra, Zeb and Chopper had gotten away. And with the med supplies, which was an added bonus. There was nothing to be afraid of. 

_Running and running…weapons not working…_

__She shook her head fiercely, fighting away the memory of the male Inquisitor. After her bombs went off, she’d woken up slung across his shoulder. She didn’t need any demonstration to realize that he could snap her in half with that thick arm. He’d dropped her onto her feet and made her walk to the command center where Ezra was shackled and under the guard of the female Inquisitor._ _

__The point of her pencil snapped, and Sabine flung the pencil across her bunk and buried her face in her hands, drawing a shaky breath. There was _nothing _to be afraid of. She was safe on the Ghost. And she had her weapons again, her blasters and her bombs, her explosive paints, wrist computer, a few knives, plenty of blunt or heavy things that could double as weapons, if necessary. Though there was no need for them. She was safe.___ _

___She kicked off her blankets and climbed down the ladder. She headed to the galley and swiftly, silently, began filling the kettle with water and hunting for the box of tea. Maybe that would help her calm down. She pulled out a cup and stood at the counter, staring down at it with crossed arms while she waited for the water to boil._ _ _

___A hand landed on her shoulder. Sabine spun with a yelp—and found herself looking up at Kanan._ _ _

___“Whoa, it’s just me!” He held up his hands. “Are you okay?”_ _ _

___Sabine let out a rush of breath. “Yeah, fine.” She turned back to the counter._ _ _

___Silence. Then, “Something on your mind?”_ _ _

___She shook her head._ _ _

___Silence again. He didn’t believe her. How could he, when she’d reacted so histrionically to his appearance? She tossed her head, feigning nonchalance, and said lightly, “Just can’t sleep.” She gestured to the kettle. “You want some?”_ _ _

___Kanan reached into the cupboard above her and got out his own cup. He set it beside hers, and leaned beside her, though with his back to the counter and not to the galley._ _ _

___Sabine watch the steam drift out of the kettle and tried to speak nonchalantly. “Ezra was brave.” She nudged Kanan with her elbow and added, “Don’t tell him I said that. He takes after you too much for his own good, you know. Told me to run and then jammed the door shut with his lightsaber so I couldn’t follow.”_ _ _

___“Yeah?” Kanan’s voice was hesitant, as though he were torn between pride and fury._ _ _

___“Yeah. Didn’t work, but still.”_ _ _

___The kettle went off, and Sabine poured the water into her mug, waited for Kanan to actually put a tea bag into his cup, and then poured water for him. Heavy silence fell over the kitchen. After a minute Kanan spoke quietly, in that low, warm tone that always managed to break her tough shell, “What’s bothering you, Sabine?”_ _ _

___She huffed. “Those…those Inquisitors… They were…” She shook her head fiercely. “How did you keep facing the first one over and over?”_ _ _

___Kanan spoke drily. “Well, he usually started it.”_ _ _

___Sabine laughed in spite of herself, but it came out sounding more like a sob. She drew a deep breath and let it out in a rush. “Yeah, no kidding.” She turned and leaned back against the counter so that she was side-by-side with Kanan. “Only now, there’s two of them—and that other one who came after us…” she instinctively rubbed her right side where the blaster bolts had hit. If she hadn’t been wearing her armor…_ _ _

___“The Sith lord,” Kanan murmured._ _ _

___“Yeah, so that’s three after us. Like we don’t have enough to deal with.” She shook her bangs out of her face and glanced up at Kanan. “I guess you didn’t know there were more?”_ _ _

___Kanan was silent for a moment, staring at the floor. Then, heavily, “No.” After a pause, “I’m sorry, Sabine.”_ _ _

___As if it was his fault that the whole thing had happened. He would blame himself for not knowing, not being, there, for anything, really. Typical Kanan. Sabine shrugged._ _ _

___“Can’t help it if you didn’t know. So how do we fight back?”_ _ _

___“I don’t know that either.”_ _ _

___His voice was still heavy. Sabine’s heart sank, and she tried to think. “We technically have them outnumbered. Today on the station, you and Hera weren’t there, so…” She trailed off. They technically had the first Inquisitor outnumbered too and had only barely escaped him. They’d escaped several times, sure, but anything could have gone wrong so easily. And only Kanan and Ezra were Jedi-trained… “Well, how’d the old Jedi deal with stuff like this?”_ _ _

___“They didn’t.”_ _ _

___Sabine looked up at him in surprise, and Kanan glanced at her and amended, “We all thought the Sith were extinct. I thought so myself until recently.” He paused again and then roused himself and continued, “There were no acolytes—no enemies that really used the Dark Side.”_ _ _

___“So, not a lot to go on. Great.”_ _ _

___Kanan sighed heavily and began to answer, but Sabine cut him off. “The truth is, we never stood much of a chance on that station. We barely escaped with our lives. Ezra and I—we should be dead, right now. And they’ll come after us again, Kanan.” She clenched her fists. “They’ll come after you and Ezra—like that first Inquisitor did, over and over—and we barely outran him—and now there’s two more after us, plus that Sith Lord—and Ezra said the woman said there are many more hunting us now—and they know about Ahsoka—and if you don’t know any old Jedi tricks—!”_ _ _

___“Whoa, Sabine!” Kanan turned to face her. “You’re not saying you want to give up and quit, are you?”_ _ _

___“ _No _!” Sabine crossed her arms. “I’m saying—I’m saying we…”___ _ _

___“Don’t know what we’re up against?” Kanan finished quietly._ _ _

___Sabine began to retort, but the words choked her. She swallowed and stared hard at the floor. “He detached my bombs.”_ _ _

___Surprised silence. “What?”_ _ _

___“The male Inquisitor. He detached my bombs, sent them after me.” Turning her own weapons, her strengths and defenses, against her. “Some Force-thing, I guess.” She dug her fingers into her arm. “Could have sworn I hid them well enough…”_ _ _

___“You did the best you could. I know it,” Kanan said gently._ _ _

___Sabine shook her head, and her bangs fell in her face, hiding her eyes. “Well, it wasn’t enough. And Ezra almost paid the price! I tried to run—once. The male Inquisitor doubled back, caught me, nearly twisted my arm off. Then he said the Seventh Sister would kill Ezra if I resisted.”_ _ _

___She shut her eyes and let out a breath. She remembered being shoved into the room and seeing Ezra, handcuffed and defiant and afraid. She’d been shoved to her knees beside him. Cuffs were snapped onto her wrists. She heard the whirr of the lightsaber and felt the heat of the blade near her neck, red and warm. The male Inquisitor locked her entire head in that huge hand so she couldn’t pull away. And her hands had been cuffed, and the Inquisitors had hovered so close they blocked any escape, and she was helpless. She shook her head hard as though she could shake away the memory._ _ _

___“Hey.” She felt Kanan’s hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him. His glance was kind, understanding. “It’s unnerving. Trust me, I know.”_ _ _

___“Yeah, no kidding.” Sabine gave a shaky laugh and wrapped her arms around herself. “That female Inquisitor was creepy.”_ _ _

___Kanan raised an eyebrow with a wry grin. “And Darksiders usually aren’t?”_ _ _

___The joke didn’t lift her spirits. “No, I mean… _creepy _. The way she looked at Ezra—it wasn’t right.” Sabine couldn’t really articulate the strange greed she’d seen in the woman’s eyes, and she gave a frustrated grunt. “You might want to keep a lookout.”___ _ _

___“I will.” Kanan’s tone was grim as though he’d understood what she couldn’t convey._ _ _

___Sabine sighed sharply and brushed her bangs out of her face. “What else can we do? When they can outwit us and disarm my bombs, and you have no Jedi ideas, and no amount of running or fighting will even the odds—how can we win?”_ _ _

___Kanan began to speak and checked himself. After a moment of silence, he said quietly, as if to himself, “Maybe winning isn’t the point.”_ _ _

___“Oh, and _how _is it not the point?”___ _ _

___“Because we can’t, like you said. But we can survive. We’ve all become good at that.”_ _ _

___Sabine looked at Kanan incredulously. “And what’s the point of surviving if we don’t win?”_ _ _

___“We’ll live to fight another day.”_ _ _

___Sabine crossed her arms. “I don’t like it. I can’t live my life being helpless!”_ _ _

___Kanan turned to her. “And how do you think I feel? With double enemies, if something goes wrong on a mission…” he gestured vaguely and let his hand drop. “It’s on me.”_ _ _

___“You have an overdeveloped sense of duty, you know that?”_ _ _

___Kanan chuckled._ _ _

___“And it’s triple enemies, counting that Sith lord.”_ _ _

___“Thanks for reminding me.”_ _ _

___Sabine turned to the counter and gingerly fished the tea bag out of her mug. She dropped the bag on the counter with a wet plop—and jumped again as she felt Kanan’s hand on her shoulder._ _ _

___“We’re not as helpless as you or I may think. Since we know we can’t defeat them by brute force, we won’t waste time trying—at least not for now.”_ _ _

___Sabine looked up at him as he continued, “Thing is, Darksiders are arrogant, overconfident. If we can survive and evade them long enough, they may get angry enough to make a mistake.”_ _ _

___“Let them be the ones to fail,” she murmured. “Yeah.” She drew a slow breath. “I guess it’s the best chance we’ve got.” She picked up her tea and leaned back against the counter. “Are those your own ideas, or the Jedi’s?”_ _ _

___“Bit of both.” Kanan fished his own teabag out of his mug and took a sip. “I could quote some Jedi saying about the illusion of control and the pitfalls of fear, but I certainly don’t feel like it right now.”_ _ _

___“And you just said the old Jedi never dealt with the Sith, so it would have been a useless maxim anyway.”_ _ _

___Kanan laughed out loud suddenly. “Where experience matters, yes.” He chuckled and shook his head._ _ _

___Sabine smiled and took a sip of her tea, feeling better than she had all day._ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: If you’re wondering why Kanan is completely unaware of the Jedi battle against the Sith…he would have been about 1 year old when Obi-Wan killed Darth Maul. And I can’t imagine the Jedi masters went around telling their padawans about the whole affair and their hunt for the mysterious Sith lord. Even Kanan’s knowledge about Count Dooku would have been probably more military than anything else, so it’s not a stretch that he’d think the Jedi had no idea how to deal with the Sith.


End file.
